‘Things Will Be Different’ Review: A Serviceable Sci-Fi Debut

The notion of being “stuck in the past” applies both literally and figuratively to the siblings with a shared troubled history in “Things Will Be Different,” the feature directorial debut of editor Michael Felker. The title of this proficiently tense, lo-fi time-travel crime thriller reads like a promise of change, of overcoming past mistakes with the hope of an improved future. And it’s around that human need for second chances, to amend, that the filmmaker wraps his science-fiction proposition for what’s mostly an engaging two-hander.

In the aftermath of a robbery — not their first illicit act — Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy), an estranged brother and sister, head to an isolated farmhouse where old manual clocks and a seemingly ordinary closet allow them to travel back in time. If they wait a couple weeks before returning to their own timeline (which Sydney must do to care for her daughter), as Joseph’s friend instructed, they’ll be clear of their deed and get to keep their loot.

Indictors that they have been transported to a different time come in the form of physical media laying around in the home, namely VHS tapes, CDs and later a tape recorder that acts as a communication device across time and space — a clever detail on the filmmaker’s part. At first, the pair passes the time reconnecting — there are open wounds between them — but when their laying-low period comes to an end, they can’t leave. They have entered a “vice grip” and must wait for and kill an unwelcome visitor in order to go home.

Confronted with rules that are similar to the afterlife in the “Beetlejuice” movies, Joseph and Sydney can’t go too far from the property, or they will bleed to death. A border made of blood, presumably left behind by others who attempted to escape the time prison, now demarcates the area they can inhabit. No quantum physics jargon or any sort of full explanation is provided, but there are people who control what happens on this side of the portal. At one point, Sydney throws out several theories based on photos she’s found in the home, but no definitive answer is given.

Director of photography Carissa Dorson executes a number of strong visual choices to enliven the frames with visual representations of the story’s themes, preventing the setup of two actors in a single location (which has now become a mocking trope about independent cinema) from feeling stale. An example is a 360-degree pan that takes us through the changing seasons to convey that the siblings have spent a year trapped in this limbo. Later, another such camera move not only intensifies the film’s anxious mood but also calls to mind the circular movement of the clock’s hands, which mimics how they are experiencing time as a loop. Match-cut close-ups connect the past and the present on occasion, while the lens choice blurs the edges as if time was physically being stretched.

Those cinematic flourishes cede precedence to Thompson and Dandy’s performances, however. The actors mirror one another’s emotional distresses — at times perhaps even overacting a tad — as their characters grapple with both their current circumstances, as well as their latent resentment, and how what they have done to each other and what they are experiencing may be part of a continuum. Thompson’s visceral outbursts land with rattling impact given Joseph’s rugged demeanor. When he breaks down, as the prospect of either death or eternal wandering dawns on him, the weight of the film’s stakes comes across. Dandy stands her ground, playing Sidney with a believable coldness, suggesting she is the more level-headed one of the two and she still can’t fully trust Joseph.

But because the narrative gets caught in its intent to conceal as much as possible while simultaneously getting into the weeds of the time-travel mechanics, “Things Will Be Different” feels more akin in approach to Christopher Nolan’s puzzling “Tenet” than Rian Johnson’s more straightforward “Looper.” By the time the film reaches its conclusion, one may need pen and paper to map out where and how the timelines overlap. Alluding to this interlocking interdependence, Joseph and Sydney have the same tattoo of what resembles a Venn diagram. Could this also be a clue to comprehend the series of occurrences?

That Felker previously edited “The Endless,” another time warp tale by indie duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who serve as executive producers here) implies he was already prepared to be on this wavelength himself. The movie’s assemblage (Felker co-edited with Rebeca Marques) and enigmatic clues (like a song playing on a boombox or glimpses of flashbacks) succeed at repeatedly throwing audiences off the scent in terms of the identity of the person Joseph and Sidney must eliminate. Even if the balance between the high concept and the human component falters at times, “Things Will Be Different” is an auspicious effort to amalgamate what touches the heart and what tickles the brain.